I am not a professional photographer, and I've never taken lessons. But somehow my eyes occasionally see something worth taking pictures of. Somehow my hands cooperate every once in a while, and I capture an image that isn't totally painful to look at!
Maybe being a photographer isn't so much knowing all the little tricks and how to adjust those odd little things like "ISO" and "F-stops." (Although I can see how that would come in awfully handy!) Maybe being a photographer is really about seeing the beauty in the world and capturing it so people HAVE to look at it, recognize it, and admire it. Kind of like Louis Armstrong said in his famous song, upon seeing "skies of blue and clouds of white": "And I say to myself, 'What a wonderful world!'."
I am not a professional photographer, and I've never taken lessons. But somehow my eyes occasionally see something worth taking pictures of. Somehow my hands cooperate every once in a while, and I capture an image that isn't totally painful to look at! 
